Every year, Wandsworth Arts Fringe (WAF) Grants support activities and events that will take place as part of the festival. The grants are designed to help artists, makers and community groups realise their creative vision and engage with Wandsworth residents.
The WAF Grants are funded directly by Wandsworth Council, primarily through the Wandsworth Grant Fund to support WAF activity each year, with a maximum award of £2000 per project.
The Baked Bean Company & Riverside Radio
The Baked Bean Street Party
The Baked Bean Street Party is a street party like no other. Stretching down one side of Battersea High Street, The Baked Bean Company will be showing up and painting the town… Orange! From live dance performances, musical acts and creative workshops for all, feel good vibes are a guarantee and you are invited! With a special appearance from The Baked Bean Choir who will be performing their never-been-heard-before EP live on Riverside Radio. It’s community. It’s creativity. It’s a street party in Battersea!
Location: Battersea High Street, Battersea
Website: www.bakedbeancompany.com
Share Community in partnership with the Royal College of Art
FASHION + JOY = SHARE & RCA
Share Community and the Royal College of Art’s MA Fashion programme join forces in this special millinery fashion show, featuring accessible hat designs and bespoke headwear. Share’s artists are adults with learning disabilities, autism and other support needs, who are working with alumni and students from the Royal College of Art’s MA Fashion Programme. They’ll explore inventive approaches to the making process, reflecting an interest in upcycling, and use adaptive tools and multimedia crafting. Their creative journey will challenge perceptions about disability, ableism and fashion, and allow disabled artists to thrive as creative individuals.
Location: Royal College of Art, Battersea
Website: www.sharecommunity.org.uk | www.rca.ac.uk
#GreenFringe
All Saints Church
All Saints Music Festival
The All Saints Community Music Festival features four free concerts celebrating our environment, and embracing a variety of styles and technical experience. Join us for a recital on Baroque instruments with Pawel Siwczak, an organ recital with Benjamin Costello, D'Arcy Trinkwon and YounHee Kim, a jazz concert with Senior Street Jazz Sextet, and a community concert with schools, soloists and other groups.
Location: All Saints Church, Tooting
#GreenFringe
Resounded
Roehampton Resounded
Imagine taking a walk around Roehampton... just listening... to the wind blow into the trees, the cars passing, a dog barking in the distance, the crows, the sounds of your footsteps, the kids playing football, kicking the ball, the bounce of the ball, an ambulance siren wailing, a door slam, an alarm bleep, a phone ring... An immersive experience with live music, art and film. A mindful sound journey into Roehampton.
Created by resident artists and creatives: Jackie Mwanza (Artist - Ubuntu Museum) William Nein (Musician) and Charles Lambert (Designer).
Location: Alton Arts Hub, Roehampton
Website: www.charleslambertdesign.com
Leon Clowes
Nan Kids
A series of durational performance installations in Wandsworth Libraries about the experiences of being brought up in kinship care families. Each Saturday afternoon throughout Wandsworth Arts Fringe, artist and Nan Kid Leon Clowes will be doing what his grandmother did: darning socks, flower arranging, painting watercolours. The radio set will play the often-harrowing stories of people who, for whatever reason, had to be raised by Grandma. You can pop in for a few minutes or hang around all afternoon. Please feel free to chat, ask questions, and watch as the installation takes place.
Location: Balham Library, Putney Library, Roehampton Library, York Gardens Library
Website: www.leonclowes.com
Vintage Vendetta
Meg and the Magic Toyshop
It’s first thing in the morning at the Magic Toyshop and Meg the doll can’t find her best glove… She needs your help! With timeless children’s classics from the era of Danny Kaye and Shirley Temple, Meg in the Magic Toyshop combines the warm, cosy feeling of childhood days gone by with whimsical fun for today – fabulous entertainment for children and adults alike!
“An educational 40 minutes that ignited the imagination and engaged even the toughest critics below the age of 5 - a lovely interactive Fringe production that is ideal for families with young children.” - The Serenade Files
Location: Balham Library, Earlsfield Library, Southfields Library, Tooting Library
Website: www.vintagevendettaproductions.com
Renaissance One & John Agard
John Agard’s Project Curiosity
Award-winning poet and inspiring raconteur and performer John Agard places curiosity centre stage in two events of literature, imagination and delight, blending poetry, oratory and live music. Project Curiosity is intergenerational, diverse and multi-faceted. It revels in diversity and difference in the same way that our communities are plural and varied. At the heart of it is the voice and writing of John Agard, who has inspired over four generations of school children and communities across the UK - and has been recognised with the prestigious Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry.
Ballet Soul
Othello21
An evocative dance reimagining of Shakespeare's brutal and gripping tragedy, Ballet Soul bring Othello into the 21st-century. In modern Britain, high flying media man Othello is taking London by storm. He is a passionate and powerful African man, married to the love of his life - Desdemona. In a dream he is left a blood red scarf by the spirit of his mother, and, as a token of his past and a symbol of his love, Othello gives the scarf to Desdemona… a decision that may come back to haunt him.
Location: Royal Academy of Dance, Battersea
Website: www.balletsoul.org.uk
Black Heroes Foundation
The Story of Flip Fraser
Black Heroes Foundation return to WAF with the story of Windrush icon, Flip Fraser, the first editor of The Voice newspaper and creator of the iconic show: Black Heroes in the Hall of Fame. Featuring performances and archive footage from Black Heroes in the Hall of Fame, together with an exhibition telling the story of Peter Randolph Fraser (alias Flip Fraser) and the Black Heroes he celebrated, Black Heroes Foundation present a family-friendly afternoon of creativity and heritage.
Location: Battersea Library, Battersea
Website: www.blackheroesfoundation.org
Jellyfish Theatre
Wagon of Dreams: A New Adventure
Jellyfish Theatre return to Wandsworth Arts Fringe with free performances of their new outdoor show in public spaces across the Borough of Wandsworth.
Three best friends set off on an exciting ocean adventure. A playful, inventive family show set in a real retro caravan and packed with puppetry, music and laughter. All performances are relaxed with integrated Sign Supported English. For ages 3+
“So wonderful. Interactive, super clever and hilarious” "Just brilliant! It just brought me happiness!" (Audience feedback on The Wagon of Dreams in 2021)
Location: The Henry Prince Estate (Earlsfield), Streatham Park Estate (Furzedown), Newlands Estate (Bedford) Heathbrook Park (Queenstown), Ashburton Estate (West Putney), Sellincourt Primary School Playground (Graveney).
Website: www.jellyfishtheatre.com
Windows of the Soul
Do You See What I See?
Windows of the Soul is a grassroots art exhibition exploring the perspectives of those living with sight loss. Visually impaired artists, sighted artists, ophthalmologists (eye doctors), patients and others from all over the UK come together to share their experiences of visual impairment, countering the preconception that visual disability precludes the creation of beautiful art. Works will include paintings, photography, prints, icons and braille art.
In addition to a physical and online exhibition, there will be three workshops focusing on interviews with the artists regarding their unique perceptions, simulating visual loss and the importance of sound and, finally, how the eye and brain are linked to generate vision.
Location: Outlined Gallery, Nine Elms
Website: www.windowsofthesoul.art
Zimmermann Band
Wandsworth Street Concerts
Wandsworth Street Concerts return to St Anne's Churchyard on Wednesday evenings throughout the festival (and beyond) for six outdoor classical music concerts featuring local musicians. The series will include solo Bach (29 June); Lukas Bowen, viola, and Angelus Blank, piano (15 June); the Medea string quartet who champion female composers (22 June); and the Zimmermann Band opening and closing the series with Purcell Songs (08 June) and Handel’s first English oratorio, Esther. Concerts are free so everyone can come, though donations are welcome. Invite your friends and bring a rug and a picnic!
Location: St Anne’s Churchyard, Wandsworth Town
Website: www.streetconcertswandsworth.com
Marcus Megastar
The Music of The Night
Marcus Megastar is teaming up with Wandsworth's Gemini Dancers and West End legend Rosie Ashe (Phantom of The Opera) to tell the story of genius Giacomo Leopardi, who lived with kyphosis (curvature of the spine) and could study anything - but love. Marcus’ sizzling new show, The Music Of The Night, will showcase new music including a finale co-written with hit songwriter Michael Garvin (Waiting For Tonight, Jennifer Lopez) and some very special guests. Expect a serious dance party, a feast for the eyes, ears and soul, with stunning background visuals, costume design by Haus Of Ra (whose creative director has worked with Dior and Lady Gaga), and prosthetic FX characters in an ultimate cheer-up fest. Free for disabled audiences and their carers.
Location: The Bedford, Balham
Website: https://marcusmegastar.com
Shed Project
Queer Lives and Art: Radical Quilt-Making
Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Pride in London, Queer Lives and Art: Radical Quilt-Making is a community quilt-making workshop run by queer artists Al Hill (He/They), Joe Lawn (They/He), Colin Lievens (They/Them) and Eleanor Louise West (She/They). Running in-person on 11 June and via Zoom on 12 June, visitors are invited to make a patch in contribution to a communal quilt documenting personal experiences and allyship across Wandsworth’s LGBTQIA+ community. On 26 June we invite all to join us in a celebratory event where the quilt will be unveiled.
The quilt symbolises the coming together of the Wandsworth community through queer resistance. It will represent 50 years of LGBTQIA+ community in Wandsworth and South London. All are welcome to come along and make, create, or just have a chat. The event is curated by Shed Project as part of a wider programme, Queer Lives and Art: Radical Textiles.
Location: The Woodfield Pavilion, Tooting
Instagram: @shed.project.studio
Gary Thomas (Film on Film Entertainment)
Wrestling for Pleasure
A new play about a group of LGBTQIA+ friends from the 1990s to the present day, brought together through their love of wrestling. A journey to the darker side of the ‘gay world’, Wrestling For Pleasure is an exploration of friendship, fall-outs, sex, survival and what it means to be a strong man.
Location: The Arches, St Mary’s Church, Putney
Website: www.garythomas.co.uk
Sol Golden Sato
Happy Feet
Happy Feet is a 25-meter participatory painting – a celebration of creativity and joyous wellbeing painted using dancing feet. This summer, FRAMED artist Sol Golden Sato invites you to come and paint on a massive canvas. Your painting will combine with the paintings of those who came before you and those who came after you – to create a living mega artwork. Inspired by the Gutai group – radical Japanese artists who wanted to change the world through painting, performance and children’s play – everyone of all ages is welcome to paint, dance, sketch and become part of this collective artwork.
Location: Alton Arts Hub, Roehampton
Website: www.instagram.com/solgoldensato
Sound Minds
Back to the Beginning
Sound Minds artists go ‘Back to the Beginning’, retracing their personal journeys, creating a mixed media installation, developed through a series of collaborative workshops. Text, photography, art and music will give form to an expansive, interwoven environment of diverse identities. The Sound Minds musicians will be working alongside the studio artists, using songwriting to explore how our roots impact our well-being today.
The public is invited to interact and add to this rich web of personal stories throughout the exhibition.
Location: Sound Minds, Battersea
Website: www.soundminds.co.uk
On Da Beat Studio
Open Studio + House Party Vol.1
Independent recording studio On Da Beat Studio celebrates its fourth summer with virtual and physical open studio workshops alongside live performances from established and up-and-coming artists from the communities, scenes, and genres that have been part of the journey. The Open Studio workshops offer a learning exchange on the cultural and creative industries and are free to for young people and people in receipt of universal credit. On Da Beat’s first ‘House party’ will begin with an open talent search to find talented performers from across the borough.
Location: On Da Beat Studio, Wandsworth Town
Website: ondabeat.co.uk